IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Databases, Data Protection for Microsoft SQL Server, Version 7.1

Backups of availability databases

Data Protection for SQL Server backs up and restores each availability database as a single object, regardless of which availability replica is used for backup and restore operations.

An AlwaysOn Availability Group can contain a set of primary databases and one to four copies of the set of primary databases, called secondary databases. Databases in an availability group are called availability databases, and they fail over together as a group.

An AlwaysOn Availability Group requires SQL Server instances on Windows Failover Cluster nodes. An availability group can have a number of replicas. For example, availability group 1 might have replicas node1, node2, and node3.

A cluster node might be an availability replica for one or more availability groups. For example, node1 might be a replica for availability group 1 and another availability group. For the secondary replica, read-only is an option that can be set at the availability group level.

The AlwaysOn Node is used to manage backups of availability databases. When you work in a Tivoli Storage Manager environment, the AlwaysOn Node is to be common in a Windows Failover Cluster. This presence enables the management of backups of an availability database in a single location, regardless of the replica that is used to perform the backup.

The following types of VSS backup operations are supported:
The following types of legacy backup operations are supported:

For all backup operations of secondary availability replicas, the secondary replicas must be in the synchronized or synchronizing state.

To assist with scheduling and load balancing, scheduled backup preference settings of availability groups are also available.



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